Tuesday 21 February 2017

Furry Creatures continued...


 Very fiddly , this Tufted Stitch is very scary ! The caterpillar on the kit picture has been worked slightly differently to the kit instructions diagram , which gives the caterpillar more  stripes ...I think he looks proper Cornish ..and decided to work him with more stripes. I still need to stitch in his antennae and feet .
 Then on to that squirrel . I forgot to take a picture here , of the guide lines that I found helpful to draw on with a pencil , to remind myself of the stitch direction , the way the fur lies .
 One of the annoying things about these kits is trying to make sure the stitches cover the printed lines . When I design my own  pictures I use a pencil and as I work over it, the pencil lines disappear . When I have completed this kit , I will go back over it and tidy up all those turquoise lines .
 I continued with three shades of the crewel wool for his bushy tail .



 Looking good so far ,This stitch has various other names such as Carpet stitch and Turkey Work . Then to carefully snip all the loops .


All loops carefully snipped and then I spent a very meditative 20 mins or so just teasing apart each of those snipped woolen threads , to give it a more blended and softer squirrelly tail look .
 Tomorrow I,ll begin the rabbit, which has just a little bit more of this tufted stitch for his tail  .
  It's all good practice !


Monday 13 February 2017

Hopping mad !


                                                           Hopping mad !
I had planned to stitch all the gold areas next , but the numbers on the wool skein labels do not match the numbers on the instruction leaflet picture chart . I studied it for ages....and gave myself a headache .
 The labels on the skeins are 3, 4 and 5 ...but the small yellow flower is marked as being 2 , 3 and 4. T he butterfly is marked as being stitched in 2 , 3 , 4 and 5 . It quite clearly says on the instruction sheet that there are three shades of each colour in the kit .


                                It is a vintage kit , so I cant contact anyone to ask .


     So I stitched the happy little froggy next instead , before returning to the gold areas .
 I just did the best I could  .
 I,m now doing the caterpillar , which is worked in an altogether even more terrifying stitch  known as Tufted Stitch , in forest green and light gold .
  So here goes .....I,m not going to attempt a tutorial here..these are sort of back stitches which hold down little loops , which are then snipped to give a furry or carpet effect .


                                                               Stress !
                     I did once know how to do this stitch , a very long time ago ! :)

Angel Wings Silk